Storm vs. Dream: Rookies Flau'jae Johnson and Awa Fam Combine for 45 as Seattle Rolls to a 105-90 Win

The first 12 points of Saturday night's game at Climate Pledge Arena all belonged to Seattle, nine of them belonged to a rookie named Awa Fam, and for a team that had gone from May 24 to June 25 without a win, it looked like somebody had hacked the scoreboard.

Nobody had. The Seattle Storm never trailed and beat the Atlanta Dream 105-90, with Flau'jae Johnson going for 24 points and 11 rebounds and Fam scoring 21 on a ridiculous 8-of-9 shooting. That's two straight wins for a team coming off a franchise-record 11-game losing streak, and it came against a Dream club that showed up with a 12-6 record. Rookies aren't supposed to be this rude.

Twelve Before Anyone Blinked

Fam's three 3s in the opening minutes gave Seattle its 12-0 start, and the lead was never really in danger after that, although Atlanta did keep trying to make it so. An 8-0 Dream run cut it to 12-8 midway through the first, but the Storm settled back in and led 21-13 after one.

Atlanta's best stretch came in the second quarter. The Dream got within 38-36 with 2:36 left in the half, and for a moment this looked like the game everybody expected. Seattle promptly scored the next eight to go up 46-36, and it was 46-39 at the break.

The third quarter was the Storm's prettiest. They scored 32, shot it like the basket had been widened, and carried a 78-66 lead to the fourth. They were up 82-66 with 9:29 left when Atlanta made one more charge, an 8-0 run that took all of 84 seconds and cut it in half.

Then came the real test. Rhyne Howard kept coming, and her layup off a Jordin Canada pass made it 91-84 with 4:30 to go. For a team that had just lost 11 straight, that's the kind of moment when an entire building starts doing math.

So Johnson pulled up from 24 feet on a step-back and buried it. Thirty-four seconds later, Fam hit from 24 feet too, off a Natisha Hiedeman pass. Dominique Malonga scored inside, Hiedeman hit two free throws, and that 10-0 burst put the lead at 101-84. The rest was a formality.

The Kids Took Over the Building

Johnson's line was all over the place in the best way. She made 9 of 12 shots, went 2-of-3 from deep and 4-of-5 at the line, and added four assists and two steals to the double-double in 33 minutes. Eleven rebounds on top of 24 points is not a normal rookie stat line in anyone's league.

Fam, the No. 3 pick in this year's draft, has a stat line you need to read twice: 21 points, 8-of-9 shooting, 5-of-6 from 3, and a total of one rebound. She played 28 minutes, finished plus-15 and didn't need to do anything else. Every time the defense lost track of her, the ball went in. She did have four turnovers, and in fairness, so did Johnson. Seattle's kids are allowed to be kids.

The veterans cleaned up around them. Hiedeman scored 20 with six assists and went 6-of-6 at the line. Malonga had 16 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, though she also committed six turnovers and finished with six fouls. Jade Melbourne added 10 points and five assists, went 2-of-2 from deep and led everybody at plus-25. Those five starters accounted for all but 14 of Seattle's points, with Zia Cooke's six on 2-of-2 shooting and Stefanie Dolson's five leading the way among the reserves.

Howard was terrific for Atlanta, scoring 27 on 10-of-17 shooting with four 3s. She finished with zero rebounds in 38 minutes, which is a very strange box score line for someone who played that well. Angel Reese had 17 points and nine rebounds, getting 9 of those points at the line. Allisha Gray scored 15 but needed 16 shots and went 1-of-7 from deep, and Canada had 10 assists with eight points.

Twenty-One Points, Right There

If you want the single explanation, it's on the arc. Seattle went 14-of-23 from 3. Atlanta went 7-of-29. That's a 21-point swing in a 15-point game, and it wasn't luck so much as shot quality, since the Storm piled up 27 assists on 38 made field goals. Meanwhile, Atlanta took six more 3s and made half as many.

Atlanta also finished without a single blocked shot, and it was playing the night after a 78-75 loss at Golden State. Giving up 60 percent shooting on a back-to-back is an ugly way to catch the next flight, and a third straight defeat doesn't make the seats any more comfortable.

The Dream did plenty of other things right, for what that's worth. They went 23-of-26 at the line and scored 16 points off Seattle's 18 turnovers, a number that usually gets you beaten. On this night, it just got you within 15.

The Math Problem

• 14-of-23 vs. 7-of-29: The 3-point gap that decided everything.
• 60 percent: Seattle's shooting from the floor, on 38-of-63.
• 27: Storm assists.
• 18: Seattle's turnovers, which still weren't enough to let Atlanta back in.
• 12-0: The opening run. The Storm never trailed.

A Small Pulse in Seattle

The Storm are 5-15 and 4-7 at home, and a week ago they hadn't won since May. Now they've beaten New York 99-88 and Atlanta in the same week. They visit Phoenix on Thursday.

Atlanta drops to 12-7 and 6-5 on the road, losing all three games so far on a four-game road trip. Those three defeats came right after four straight wins. The trip ends Thursday in Washington.

Frasier Would Have Taken the Call

Seattle's most famous radio psychiatrist could have filled a whole season of call-in shows with what this fan base went through during that 11-game slide. Now a couple of rookies are answering the phones instead, and their advice is refreshingly simple: go 8-of-9.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Context as reported by the Associated Press.